Observations, rewatching Season 1 for first time in a while

I've actually just started a rewatch of Voyager and I'm watching Phage. They really should have made the Vidiians the big bad in the first two seasons rather then the Kazon, even though I really liked the Basics two parter.

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I agree. The Vidiians had so much more to offer in the villian category, imho, including a pretty ominous reason (the Phage) for their actions and those actions were pretty grim.
Far better than the Kazon, who were dolts really and had a comical appearance to boot.

Seska made watching the Kazon tolerable. I would have liked them to be more like Klingons, and less like the jerks that they are. Sure, we’re supposed to hate on the villains.

But Seska was a loveable villain.

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I enjoyed the Seska and Calluh dynamic quite a bit but I never saw the Kazon as anything more then school bullies. I also don't understand why they can't even get water yet they have these powerful ships that gave Voyager quite a pounding in the first episode and Alliances. One would think if they can build those great ships, they could also build the technology they desired.

Remember, they stole all their tech from the Trabe. I don't think they have shipbuilding facilities. It was never mentioned, and given their Pakled-like tech mentality, I doubt they have the know-how or desire. Otherwise, you would think the sects would not be so varied in terms of ship count.

Remember, they stole all their tech from the Trabe. I don't think they have shipbuilding facilities. It was never mentioned, and given their Pakled-like tech mentality, I doubt they have the know-how or desire. Otherwise, you would think the sects would not be so varied in terms of ship count.

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I was thinking about the whole Trabe thing when I typed my prior response. That leads me to the question of how do they maintain the ships then. Like I said, they are nomadic and don't know new technologies, yet they have these powerful ships at their disposal and you would think they would break down if they don't get maintained.

I agree. The Vidiians had so much more to offer in the villian category, imho, including a pretty ominous reason (the Phage) for their actions and those actions were pretty grim.
Far better than the Kazon, who were dolts really and had a comical appearance to boot.

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I think it was Piller who pushed the Kazon. When he was gone so were they. Taylor didn't like them at all.

The Vidiians were much more interesting . The Kazon were low rent Klingons.

Let’s say you’re a schoolyard bully. You steal a car.
Your friend has the gun.
“Take me to Fort Knox!” He says.

Which can’t happen, because there’s no map, you’ve never driven on an interstate, no GPS, and you don’t have a clue where that is.

The Kazon.

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That's not the Kazon. The Kazon are clearly proficient in the use of their technology. To the point of besting Voyager on multiple occasions over a long period of time, time in which Voyager was steadfastly traveling towards a destination.

Michael Piller's final scripts of the franchise was the "BASICS" two-parter, so that does make sense. If memory serves, the title was also a reminder to the staff to follow the core things of writing for the series.

Leaving the Kazon behind would have happened eventually, simply by virtue of heading out of that area of space.

I am curious if the Vidiians ever tried harvesting any Kazon ships or settlements.

But I still believe the Kazon were fairly inept. Not to say the entire species is Pakled level stupid, but I think there are very few smart Kazon.

And we have to remember, the Kazon outnumbered them most of the times they were hurt bad. No matter how good any fighter is, being outnumbered is never good odds.

And by the way, Voyager was not that steadfast in the first season, and detoured back hard at least once in the second. "JETREL" and "RESOLUTIONS", as examples of when they lose a good deal of time going forward only to go backward, so the Kazon could potentially catch up quite often.

And by the way, Voyager was not that steadfast in the first season, and detoured back hard at least once in the second. "JETREL" and "RESOLUTIONS", as examples of when they lose a good deal of time going forward only to go backward, so the Kazon could potentially catch up quite often.

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Maybe so, but if they "don't have a map or know where anything is and are inexperienced drivers" how did they find Voyager so often?

It's reminding me why it's one of the best episodes, possibly the best so far when it came out. You see two Voyagers, one mostly destroyed, one mostly safe. And the safe one gets destroyed, protecting the destroyed one. It was the first surprising episode, and it still stands out.